


home is safer than out here

by 8The_Great_Perhaps8



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Umino Iruka Adopts Uzumaki Naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 12:50:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18941305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8The_Great_Perhaps8/pseuds/8The_Great_Perhaps8
Summary: Iruka hadn't intended to functionally adopt Naruto.But he had looked so sad, standing there all alone in the rain on the playground.





	home is safer than out here

Iruka had in no way intended to functionally adopt Naruto.

But Naruto had looked so _sad_ , standing in the rain on the playground and watching all the kids get taken home, and Iruka wasn’t willing to let another kid become a lonely parentless orphan for no good reason.

So Iruka took Naruto back to his apartment and made him wash off, and then made microwave ramen for himself and the kid, and had shoved Naruto into one of Iruka’s old training outfits while his actual clothes were drying, and Naruto had looked between Iruka and the cups of ramen on the table, and he had looked so sad and mistrustful until he ate the ramen and started to grin.

And Naruto had gone home so quickly once his clothes were dry, like he was afraid that Iruka was going to drive him away himself.

And then the next day, Naruto had been standing in the park again, looking so lonely, and Iruka had called him over again, and brought him home again and made him shitty instant ramen again.

And then again the next day, and the next day, and again and again and again until Naruto just waited for Iruka outside his apartment.

And then, when Naruto had brought Iruka to _his_ apartment, to show it off, and the apartment had not just been in the single worst neighborhood in all of Konoha, but in the worst _building_ , the one that every solitary genin dreaded needing to rent from because of the terrible plumbing, and the leaks, and the poor insulation, and the neighbors. And Naruto’s apartment itself was coated in grime and dirt and dust and bugs, with garbage scattered everywhere.

And Naruto was _six_. And Iruka tried not to get angry, because Naruto looked completely pathetic whenever anyone even seemed like they were going to get even the tiniest bit upset, but Naruto was _six_ , and maybe Iruka _had_ still had his parents at age six, but he remembered being eight and living on his own for the first time ever, and what a mess it was, and that was when he was two years older than Naruto and had _friends_.

So Iruka got Naruto to pack up all of his essentials, which had a higher percentage of manga than Iruka would have expected, and they had cleaned up Naruto’s apartment, and turned in Naruto’s key to the landlady with a polite bow and a promise to pay the rent through the next month, and Iruka had brought Naruto back to his apartment and rolled out the spare futon next to his own in the bedroom, and folded up Naruto’s clothes and put them next to Iruka’s own, and Iruka had given Naruto a key to the apartment.

And Iruka had taken Naruto out for dinner, because special occasions call for celebration, and Naruto had brought him to some ramen restaurant, where the old man in charge had said that it was nice to see Naruto come with a friend, for once, and had said that Naruto had, apparently, been going there ever since he had lived on his own, which turned out to be age _four_ , and had never brought a friend with.

And Iruka didn’t get angry, because Naruto was already far too quiet for Iruka’s liking, but he was boiling hotter than the water the ramen noodles were steeping in.

Instead, he just ruffled Naruto’s hair, said that he was glad that Naruto thought that he was cool enough to share ramen with him, and ate his miso ramen.

And Iruka had never seen Naruto smile so big.

The next morning, Iruka only half regretted functionally adopting Naruto, when he woke Iruka up at six by spilling cereal all over the kitchen floor.

But Naruto had looked so sad when Iruka stumbled out of his room, and had asked Iruka to please not be angry, so Iruka just sighed, counted to ten in his head, and got out the broom.

It would have been a sweet surprise.

Instead, Iruka made oatmeal for them both, almost smothering Naruto’s in sugar and cinnamon, and they both ate at the kitchen table.

They made bentos together, leftover rice and hardboiled eggs for both of them, plus mini hot dogs for Naruto, and some seaweed chips for Iruka, at Naruto’s insistence.

And then, Naruto had almost managed to get dressed by himself, except with his shirt inside out and backwards and only wearing one shoe on his hand.

So Iruka re-combobulated Naruto, including brushing his hair while the boy brushed his teeth, and then gave him a book of riddles to occupy himself while Iruka brushed his own hair and teeth and put his own clothes on.

He filled Naruto’s backpack with a new notebook, some pens that Iruka managed to find lying around the apartment, and Naruto’s bento, plus five hundred ryo- just in case of emergencies, he warned Naruto- and walked Naruto to the academy, and then himself to the mission desk.

Where a white-haired jounin scared the absolute _shit_ out of him, appearing out of nowhere in Iruka’s path, which he was definitely fully focusing on, definitely not thinking about Naruto and whether he would be alright during the day or not.

And Iruka definitely didn’t almost stab the white-haired jounin with his unsharpened kunai.

“ _Fucking_ hell,” Iruka said, before glancing surreptitiously around to make sure that Naruto hadn’t heard him. “Uh, excuse me, jounin-san. I’m sorry, I should have been watching where I was going.”

“Ah, it’s no problem, genin-chan,” the jounin said, following behind Iruka. “I walked into you. Really, I should be apologizing.”

“Whatever you say, jounin-san,” Iruka said. “Are you going to the mission desk too?”

“No, I’m already on my mission, genin-chan.”

“Well, you’d better hurry,” Iruka hinted. “You know, most clients don’t appreciate it when the jounin mess around on the missions. And neither does Lord Third.”

“I’m not messing around, genin-chan,” the jounin said. “Here’s my mission.”

He grabbed Iruka by the shoulder, and _shunshin_ ed the both of them into a dark alley, pinning Iruka against the wall.

“Leave Naruto alone,” the jounin growled. “You are not his father. Stop acting like it. Leave him alone. He was doing fine before he ever met you, and you do _not_ get to disregard Lord Third to this degree. Understand?”

Iruka stared at the jounin for a moment, at first frightened, before his fear gave way to anger. “Ex _cuse_ me?”

The jounin glared with his single unexposed eye. “I said, leave Naruto alone. I don’t want to make you regret it. Send the boy back where you found him, or-”

“Absolutely not!” Iruka interrupted. He clutched the strap of his weapons satchel tightly. “Jounin-san, I don’t care _what_ you intend to do to me, but I will _not_ abandon Naruto! He was a sad, lonely boy, and I have _been_ that boy. I will _not_ let Naruto become that boy, when he can be so kind and so good. You can leave me and Naruto alone, thank you, and I will _not_ let you intimidate me into abandoning Naruto!”

The jounin blinked slowly at Iruka. “Ah. So you’re saying that you won’t abandon Naruto?”

“That’s right,” Iruka said, nodding. “And- and you can take me to T&I, or to some underground prison, or whatever you want to do, but I am _not_ going to leave Naruto!”

The jounin kept staring at Iruka, before he finally lowered his head and started laughing.

“Well,” the jounin said, “I guess I did my best, didn’t I.”

And he vanished again.

Iruka took a moment, took a long, deep breath, before he screamed inside of his mouth for a full minute. straight. He didn’t even know where he _was_ , and the jounin was gone, and genin weren’t meant to _shunshin_ within the village.

Iruka screamed into his mouth again, before he strode out of the alley and made his windabout way to the mission desk.

And then, at the end of the day, once Iruka was done with what D-ranks and C-ranks there are in the village, and he was back in his apartment, he realized that, apparently, Naruto forgot to inform him that he was friends with the hokage.

The hokage, who was sitting at Iruka’s kitchen table, while Naruto was making tea.

“Ah, Iruka-kun,” the hokage said, puffing his pipe. “I’m glad you’re back. I wanted to talk with you.”

Iruka stared. “Oh.” He finally said. “Did you?”

“Yes, indeed,” the hokage glanced over at Naruto. “Naruto, could you leave Iruka-kun and myself alone for a few moments? I need to have a private conversation with him.”

Naruto pouted. “But, Jiji, the _tea’s_ almost ready.”

“It can be ready later, Naruto,” the hokage said calmly. “Please excuse yourself.”

Naruto huffed and stomped his foot. “ _Fine_ ,” he said. He walked down the hallway towards the bedroom, feet heavy. “But I’m _not_ happy about it!”

“Do your homework!” Iruka called. In response, Naruto slammed the bedroom door.

Iruka sighed, and walked over to the stove to turn the water off. “Sorry about him, Lord Third. He doesn’t usually get into snits like that. Just doesn’t like being excluded, I figure.”

“Sounds right,” the hokage said. “Tell me, Iruka, why have you taken Naruto in?”

Iruka stared at the hokage, as he hung up his weapons bag. “Because. He was a lonely boy, and I don’t think that little boys deserve to be lonely.”

“Hm,” the hokage said, puffing on his pipe. “And I’m sure that I don’t have to remind you of what I told the village, after the kyuubi attacked.”

“Of course not,” Iruka said, trying desperately to remember whether or not he had been paying attention to any of the speeches that the hokage and elders had given during the six months immediately after the kyuubi’s attack.

“Good, good. It’s for the safety of us all, you know.”

“Of course,” Iruka agreed. “Lord Third, may I ask you a question? Or, rather, two questions.”

“Certainly. What is it?”

“Were you the one who sent that jounin after me?” Iruka asked. “White hair, face half-masked, very rude? Was harassing me on my way to the missions desk?”

Before the hokage could answer the question, Iruka’s bedroom door slammed open. “Nobody better have been messing with you, Iruka-nii!”

“Do your homework, and don’t eavesdrop on private conversations!” Iruka yelled back. After a moment, the door slammed back shut.

“I’m sorry about him,” Iruka said again.

“Quite alright. I remember when my Asuma was a boy, he was much the same way. As to your question- I did ask him to ask after you, but I certainly didn’t ask him to threaten you. I’ll speak with him.”

“Thank you.”

“And your second question?”

“Ah! Right, yes. Would you like to join Naruto and I for dinner? I'm sure Naruto would be thrilled.”

The hokage chuckled. “No, no, don’t worry about me, Iruka-kun. I just stopped in to check on you and Naruto, to make sure you were both feeling alright about everything.”

“Well, that’s very nice of you,” Iruka said. “You wait here, I’ll go and get Naruto.”

Iruka walked down the hall and knocked gently on the bedroom door. “Naruto, the hoage would like to finish speaking with you.”

Naruto slammed the door open, nearly knocking Iruka down. “Geez, it took you long enough! Now _you_ gotta go away, Iruka, while _I_ have a private conversation with Jiji.”

“If you insist,” Iruka agreed, rubbing his forehead where the door had collided with him. Naruto was already down the hall and chattering to the hokage.

Iruka sighed fondly, and then ducked into the bedroom. He sat down at his desk, pulling out his old textbooks and his notebook and pens, and started studying.

“Hey! Iruka-nii!” Naruto screamed, several hours later, from the kitchen. “Iruka-nii, Jiji’s leaving, don’t you wanna say bye?”

“I’m coming, Naruto,” Iruka called. He set down his notebook and walked back out to the kitchen, where the hokage was indeed leaving.

Iruka exchanged pleasantries with the hokage, while Naruto was bouncing around them. After one last reminder to Iruka about his speech- and Iruka should probably look up whatever speech he’s talking about- Iruka set about making dinner. Curry, tonight, because eating instant ramen every night was definitely not good for children, probably.

And Iruka and Naruto settled into a routine. Wake up early to make breakfast together, Iruka walks Naruto to school before he goes to the mission desk, they spend the day apart, and then reconvene at the apartment for homework time and dinner, or if the hokage is visiting, Iruka does his homework while Naruto and Lord Third talk. They have a bath every other day, and go grocery shopping every other weekend.

It’s a great routine. Iruka likes this routine, even when Naruto throws his fits or whines for ramen or tries to convince Iruka that he doesn’t actually have to do his homework, sensei said so. It’s kid stuff, and Naruto is just so much happier now, not that lonely little boy that Iruka had seen standing in the rain in the playground.

Naruto even had _friends_ , now, even a girl he considers his _best_ friend, named Sakura, and another boy who is his less-best friend, an Inuzuka named Kiba.

If Iruka knew anything about Inuzuka, Kiba only made friends with Naruto because his mother specifically forbade it.

So Iruka really didn’t mind any of the little annoyances that come from being Naruto’s caretaker. It’s well worth it.

The day Iruka was graduated to chuunin- and, at the same time, promoted to become a sensei at the academy, and probably Naruto’s sensei, at that- he came back to the apartment completely overjoyed, almost bouncing up the stairs, and entered his apartment to Naruto screaming ‘congratulations’.

Which was sweet, but still scared the everloving shit out of Iruka.

He didn’t swear, at least, which was something. Naruto had already learned way too much about that type of thing from living with Iruka.

Naruto was bouncing on his toes, badly hiding a poorly-wrapped gift behind his back. “Congratulations, congratulations, ‘ttebayo!” He shouted. “Iruka-nii, Iruka-nii, I got you something! D’you want it now, or later? ‘Cause I’m still gonna make dinner, y’know, as a special gift for congratulatin’ you, but you can have your present first! Do you want your present first, or after dinner?”

“Can I walk through the door, first?” Iruka asked, tousling Naruto’s hair. “Let me take my shoes off, at least, and then you can give me your present. Alright?”

“Okay, just hurry up, Iruka-nii! This is gonna be real great, y’know?”

“Oh, I figured,” Iruka said, kicking his shoes off and hanging up his bag. “Alright, show me.”

And Naruto shoved the present into Iruka’s hands so hard that Iruka was half-afraid that it was an exploding tag.

Instead, he unwrapped the clumsy tissue paper to pull out a red, spiral-bound notebook, with “Umino Iruka - Chuunin” cleanly printed on the front.

“ _T_ _hank_ you, Naruto,” he said. “This is very sweet. I’m sure I’m going to use it quite often.”

“Yeah!” Naruto agreed. “I got, um, Inu-san to write that for me, ‘cause his handwriting is way better than mine. But he didn’t know how to write your name, so I had to show him. But now you got a notebook that everybody knows is yours, and they know that you’re a chuunin, too!”

“Thank you, Naruto. This is a very nice gift.” He tousled Naruto’s hair again. “I’m going to put this in my room. You sure that you don’t want any help with making dinner?”

“ _Duh_ , Iruka-nii. It’s a _present_ for you, so you aren’t allowed to help.”

“Whatever you say, captain,” Iruka said, with a mock salute, while Naruto ran into the kitchen.

When Iruka came back from putting his notebook away in his room, there were two steaming cups of instant ramen waiting on the table.

“Surprise!” Naruto yelled.

“Oh boy, ramen,” Iruka said, sitting down across from Naruto. “Thank you very much, Naruto.”

“Yeah!” Naruto agreed, mouth already half-full of noodles. “I figured I’d make this for you, ‘cause I figured it’s your favorite, ‘cause it’s what you made most for me right when you first started bein’ my friend, right? So I made it for you for congratulations! And I figured that ramen made you happy, right, ‘cause you always smile when you an’ me are eating ramen, so I thought that ramen would make you _double_ happy, ‘cause you’re already happy from bein’ chuunin! So now you’re double happy from being chuunin an’ from havin’ ramen, I can tell from your face!” Naruto finished his impromptu speech by pointing his chopsticks at Iruka, who was, in fact, smiling the same way he always smiled when he ate ramen with Naruto.

“You got me,” Iruka agreed. “Don’t point your chopsticks, it’s rude.”

“But this is a _really_ good congratulations, right, Iruka-nii?”

“It’s the best one I’ve ever had,” Iruka said, and he ate his ramen.

And then it was summer break from the academy for everyone in Naruto’s year, and Iruka spent most of his time at the academy, getting training for becoming a teacher, while Naruto ran wild with Kiba and Sakura.

And Iruka really didn’t know why it never occurred to him before, but most of Naruto’s file was blacked out. S-rank secrets. The spaces for his parents’ names were black bars, the space for where he was born was a black bar, even the space for his chakra level- black bar. Uzumaki Naruto was one big redacted.

When Iruka made the realization, he felt very stupid. He squinted at Naruto’s last name in his file, peered out the classroom window, where he could just barely see the yondaime’s face from, and then squinted back at Naruto’s last name. And so on for several minutes, going between Naruto’s last name, and the yondaime’s face, and Naruto’s last name, and the yondaime’s face, all while Iruka was trying to remember the yondaime’s wife’s name.

And then came the moment where he felt like a moron, and he banged his head on his desk for a minute straight.

That night, at dinner, a week before the academy was going to start up again, Iruka told Naruto about his real parents.

Naruto had been confused for a long while. He had looked between his plate, to Iruka, to his own reflection in the pan in the sink, for several minutes.

And then had asked if Iruka was sure, and then demanded that they go to the roof so that Naruto could see the yondaime hokage’s face.

And Naruto had still been lying awake, eyes sparkling, when Iruka finally nodded off.

And about three days later, when Iruka finally made it home from memorizing all of his students’ names and working out a seating chart and a lesson plan, the hokage was waiting for him in the kitchen.

“Uh,” Iruka said, letting his bag fall to the floor, “good evening, Lord Third.”

“Good evening,” the hokage agreed. “Iruka, I thought you said that you remembered what I had said in my speech.”

“Right,” Iruka agreed. “Of course. Your speech. How could I possibly forget? I remember it well, really.”

“Do you,” asked the hokage. “What was one of the most important things I said, in that speech?”

“Hm,” Iruka said, wondering if it would be treason for him to grab a kunai, just in case. “That. Despite the recent difficulties. We couldn’t let the Will of Fire be extinguished?”

The hokage slammed his cane on the floor. “Fool! I said, that under _no_ circumstances, was Uzumaki Naruto to know who his true parents were. That it would be a _danger_.”

“Oh,” Iruka said, weakly. “Right.”

“You may have doomed us all, Iruka, and Naruto more than the rest of us. I hope it was worth it.”

“Now, hang on,” Iruka tried to argue, before the hokage cut him off.

“Now, anyone could learn that Naruto is the jinchuuriki of our village! Not only are we in danger, but _Naruto_ is in danger. Any jounin from another village could kidnap him!”

“Naruto’s the _what_ ,” Iruka rasped. It was meant to be more of a clarifying statement, or a demand, but his breath somehow left his lungs before he could speak. “He’s- Naruto-”

“Fool!” The hokage said again. “How could you not know that Naruto has the nine-tails sealed within him? Look at his face. Feel his chakra. He is no mere _lonely little boy_ , Iruka. You should never have taken him in.”

Iruka breathed, tried to steady himself. “Lord Third,” he said, trying for calm but falling somewhere just short of incensed, “I will thank you to not tell me how to treat children that I have under my own care.”

“He is no ordinary child, Iruka. He is something more, something for the good of Konoha. He is a child, yes, but he is also a _weapon_ .” 

Iruka took a deep breath, eyes narrowed and teeth clenched. “He. Is. A. Child. And as I said before, it is no business of yours how I raise Naruto.”

The hokage slammed his cane onto the floor. “It _is_ , you fool, because Naruto is not just a child. He is a _monster_.”

“Jiji?”

Iruka turned, and saw Naruto standing in the short hallway, already wearing his pajamas and his frog hat.

“Naruto-” Iruka began, but Naruto cut him off.

“I’m a _monster_ , Jiji?”

“Hm,” the hokage said, suddenly calm. “Not as such, dear boy. No, you’re no monster.”

“Then why’d you say I _was_ , Jiji?”

“No, Naruto, that isn’t what I meant,” the hokage said, smoking his pipe. That was a bannable offense, in the Umino household. “Go back to bed.”

“No,” Naruto said. He came forward, out of the hallway, and awkwardly took Iruka’s hand before turning to stare down the hokage. “Yer not- yer not allowed to yell at Iruka-nii. And you’re not allowed to slam fists or hit anything, ‘cause Iruka-nii doesn’t like it.”

“Naruto, you don’t understand what’s going on here,” the hokage said.

“Lord Third,” Iruka interrupted. “It’s getting late. We all need to get to bed.”

The hokage stared at the two of them for a moment before he huffed. “This conversation is _not_ over, Iruka.”

“For tonight, it is,” Iruka said easily. “And I hope you won’t be coming back until you sincerely apologize to Naruto.”

The hokage stared at them for a moment more. “Good night, then.”

“Good night, Lord Third,” Iruka agreed.

The hokage left Iruka’s apartment slowly, and Iruka didn’t really breathe until he was gone.

Once the door clicked shut, Iruka took a deep, shuddering breath. “Geez,” he said, “that wasn’t a fun conversation.”

Next to him, Naruto sniffled. Within a second, Naruto had grabbed Iruka around the waist and was hugging him tightly.

“Whoa, hey,” Iruka said, trying to bend down to see Naruto without disturbing the boy’s grip. “What’s up, buddy? Everything’s alright, y’know? Everything’s okay.”

Naruto sniffled again, and Iruka realized that the boy was crying into his hip. “Iruka-nii,” he whined, “why did Jiji call me a monster?”

“Oh,” Iruka said. “Oh, Naruto, kiddo. It’s okay.”

“But _why_ , Iruka-nii?”

“Because-” Iruka began, trying to explain. “Because-”

Naruto looked up at him, with tears streaming down his face and his blue eyes watery.

“Because the hokage is not in a very good mood,” Iruka finally decided, all in one breath.

Naruto’s tears stopped, for a moment, and he tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“Remember, uh, when you first moved in with me? And sometimes your head would hurt, and you would say not-so-nice things? That’s what’s happening to the hokage, tonight. He doesn’t mean it, and he’ll apologize soon.”

“Oh,” Naruto said. “Okay.” He sniffed heavily, and scrubbed at his eyes. “That’s okay, then. I’ll forgive him when he says sorry.”

“Good idea,” Iruka agreed. “C’mon, let’s get to bed. You start school in a few days, and you have to get plenty of sleep.”

The thing was, it was hard for Iruka to sleep next to Naruto, that night. He kept thinking back on the night the kyuubi attacked, of trying to go with his parents to fight, of his last sight of his parents being their backs. He kept thinking of the kyuubi itself, the huge, monstrous form that had made Iruka’s very being shake with terror, and still made his palms sweat, years later.

And he rolled over onto his side and stared at Naruto, who was snoring softly. Naruto, who was so sweet and so bright and who was only really scary when he didn’t want to take a bath.

They weren’t the same. They couldn’t be the same, really, not when Naruto was so good and the kyuubi was so bad.

Iruka still barely slept that night.

It was easier once school was back in session. Naruto was in Iruka’s class, and it took many hours of clapping chalk erasers for him to stop calling Iruka “Iruka-nii” at school.

They spent a lot of hours at school- Iruka often stayed late to help students, and Naruto would stay late when he had to clap erasers and more often just to keep Iruka company. On the rare occasions that Iruka managed to shoo Naruto home before him, he would come home to a bowl of instant ramen on the table.

The thing was, Naruto wasn’t very good at classwork. He was good at practical application, if that, and only when Iruka took the time to have Naruto feel his chakra network as he performed the jutsu.

It took Naruto a long time to learn things. Slow and unsteady, essentially.

Iruka wasn’t certain whether or not it was fair for him to help Naruto so much outside of class time, but Naruto looked at him with his big blue eyes and, really, Iruka was just letting Naruto get on the same level as the other kids in his class, like Sakura and Kiba.

Naruto’s birthday is three months into the school year, and Iruka isn’t sure where the time went, but before he knew it, Naruto’s birthday was in a week.

And when Iruka asked Naruto what he wanted for his birthday, all he got for an answer was a shrug.

So Iruka made his own plan.

The thing is, Naruto was also really dense, so Iruka could shop for Naruto’s present _with_ Naruto, and the boy wouldn’t even notice.

On the eighth, Iruka took Naruto to get a new kimono. On the ninth, Iruka shooed Naruto out of his classroom early, and ducked out to go to the shinobi market.

On the ninth, Naruto was practically bouncing out of his skull with excitement.

And then it was the tenth.

Naruto got Iruka out of bed at about three in the morning, insisting on getting an early start to the day, and then he fell asleep at the table. Iruka carried him back to the bedroom, and then fell asleep with him for the next five hours.

And then Naruto woke Iruka up again, and this time he was mad that Iruka didn’t let him stay up at three in the morning for no good reason.

So Iruka made him pancakes, just to get him to stop complaining so loud and so fast.

Naruto insisted that, since it was his birthday, he should get to watch television for at least an hour, and then that they go out to play at the park, and then to have lunch at Ichiraku’s, and then to practice chakra control, and then to practice sparring, and then to go see Kiba and Sakura in the forest, where Naruto got three tennis balls and a stuffed squirrel from Kiba; and an encyclopedia of pirates from Sakura; and then Iruka and Naruto went back to the apartment.

Iruka helped Naruto into his kimono, and then put his own on, before they went out.

The entire time they were at the festival, Naruto’s eyes were wide open, staring around at everything he could see. He played every game they could find, and made Iruka play the shooting game and give him his prize, and made him visit all the food stalls with him, including the Ichiraku stall, because what Naruto _really_ needed was to eat three pounds of sodium in one day.

They were at the festival for three hours when Naruto started getting tired, and Iruka picked him up to carry on his shoulders, and that was when the fireworks started.

Naruto stared up at the sky, eyes and mouth wide in wonder as he stared at them from Iruka’s shoulders.

“Wow,” Naruto said quietly.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Iruka said.

“Yeah,” Naruto said. “Thanks, Iruka-nii.”

“Of course, bud,” Iruka said. “Happy birthday.”

They stayed through the fireworks, and then started heading home, Naruto carrying all of his prizes and Iruka carrying Naruto.

At the apartment, Naruto was falling asleep at the table. Iruka hurriedly shoved a piece of candy in front of him, to make sure he wouldn’t fall asleep, and then pulled out the present he had gotten Naruto from inside the cabinet.

“What is it, Iruka-nii?” Naruto asked.

“You’ll see, once you open it,” Iruka said, carefully pouring the goldfish that Naruto had won into a small glass bowl and wondering which jounin he could foist it off onto.

Naruto tore through the wrapping paper and gasped. “Wait, Iruka-nii, is this-”

Iruka walked back over to the table and ruffled Naruto’s hair. “Happy birthday, kiddo.”

Naruto stared at Iruka for a moment, and then down at the old propaganda poster of the yondaime and his wife, standing back to back with their arms crossed and grinning at the viewer.

That night, Naruto went to bed cuddling all the stuffed animals he had won, and the propaganda poster, instead of hanging it on the wall.

“Good birthday, kid,” Iruka said sleepily, smiling at the sleeping Naruto. Finally, he drifted off to sleep alongside Naruto.


End file.
